No budget, no pay for Pa. legislators

It's unfortunate for Pennsylvanians that they must put their trust in the same plodding politicians responsible for a record seven-month budget stalemate to work out their differences and reach an acceptable compromise.

With taxes and spending for the current year unresolved, Gov. Wolf must present a proposed budget for next year, which he will do today. Both sides should use the occasion to commit to negotiating an agreement in days, not weeks. This has gone on too long.

Perhaps Wolf should bring in an experienced negotiator who could help make a deal with Republicans that allows everyone to walk away knowing they put the state's best interests above any political considerations.

For Wolf, that may mean taking bigger steps away from the state's liquor monopoly and doing more to reduce future pension costs. But he should not back down from reducing the state's $2 billion deficit and providing more money to debt-ridden public schools.

Meanwhile, responsible Republicans need to rein in reckless members of their caucuses in the House and Senate who act as if they care more about their reputations with tax-averse interest groups than about their constituents who in poll after poll say they would pay more taxes to make their schools fiscally sound.

The ideologues' behavior has been fiscally irrational. The Republicans are ignoring that schools have spent $50 million so far to borrow funds during the stalemate. Such costs will increase now that Wall Street has lowered the state's credit rating.

It's time for GOP legislators to stop acting as if funding schools and services for the people in their districts would be doing Wolf a favor. It is the legislators' obligation as elected officials to provide needed services for all Pennsylvanians.

Putting the shale-gas industry above their constituents doesn't meet that obligation. Other states with shale gas haven't let a drop in production stop them from collecting extraction taxes. But too many Pennsylvania legislators who get campaign cash from the industry won't even consider a shale tax here.

It's time for the lawmakers to stop putting their interests above the public's and pass a budget. To stay on task, they should agree to forgo wages until they have a deal. The second-highest-paid lawmakers in the nation after California's can afford to miss a paycheck from their $85,340 annual salaries. That's almost twice the state's median income.

The state's historic budget impasse has produced historically low approval ratings for both the legislature and the governor. Voters question whether elected officials who seem perpetually locked in an endless loop of partisan rancor are actually capable of governing. Today, with Wolf's budget address, they get another chance to prove they can put aside politics for the public good.